Catalina State Park, Tucson, AZ

Days 43 – 49, Monday to Sunday, February 26 – March 4, Catalina State Park, Oro Valley, AZ

We looped to the east a bit for a different drive, up to one of our favorite parks!  The campground is full, as always.  Requiring reservations a full year in advance!  It has been a drought year, so we were OK about the wind and rain that accompanied our arrival!  Jim is feeling better, but I am coughing and trying to rest.

We did some shopping for groceries, and went to Walmart to get a hummingbird feeder which sticks to the window, putting it on the window right by our table.  With the shaded windows, it is not easy to see inside.  We soon had hummingbirds, Gila woodpeckers, and a cute Verdin, gray with a yellow head, and I could see the bright maroon red shoulder patches on its shoulder!  Not as many birds here this year – there has been a drought.  It is cold this week – snow on the Catalina mountains above us!

Hummingbird feeder mounted on the window

Catalina mountains with snow on them.

Fighting this cold and not wanting it to turn into pneumonia, I took it easy this week.  I did a lot of reading, a 1,000 page book called Column of Fire, by Ken Follet, about the reigns of Queen Elizabeth the 1 and the defeat of the Spanish Armada.   Jan and I went for a 12-mile bike ride out the park and down the bike paths one day.  Jim rode his bike over to Interstate 10, to a model airplane field, about a 30-mile round trip.  Friday there was a ranger-led archaeology walk to the nearby Romero Ruins, and he did a great job talking about the people who lived here 1,000 years ago, leaving the area in about 1400.  Jim and Dwayne took the copters to fly at Naranja Park one afternoon. 

I saw a bobcat along the bike path.  Jan saw a skunk!

Plane at model airplane park Jim rode his bike to.

These are big model planes!

Ranger with the light of knowledge shining!

Part of the Romero ruins, where people lived 1,000 years ago.

Moonrise over the Catalina Mountains.

Statues at Naranja Park, the Catlinas in the background.

A Lark Sparrow!  A new species identified!

Saturday, we enjoyed a concert at the trailhead at Catalina, a singer – guitar player – poet who does a very pleasing show.  We saw her last year.  A pretty spot under the trees with the mountains rising above us!

Music and the mountains.

Sunday night we met Tinker and Greg at an Italian restaurant in north Tucson.  This is such a nice area, and I look forward to taking better advantage of the hiking trails and bike paths here next year!  We got our reservations for next year – it is already filling up.  Lost Dutchman is full already, so we missed the boat on that one for next year!